1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air conditioner for a vehicle, and more particularly, to an air conditioner for a vehicle that is capable of independently conducting air conditioning control with respect to the four-way zone inside the vehicle, thereby effectively preventing cool air entering a rear seat console vent from being heated by means of a heater core during a full cooling mode.
2. Background of the Related Art
An air conditioner for a vehicle includes a cooling system functioning to cool the inside of the vehicle and a heating system functioning to heat the inside of the vehicle. The cooling system is configured in such a manner that refrigerants flowing in a circulating cycle of a condenser, a receiver dryer, an expansion valve, and an evaporator by the activation of a compressor is heat-exchanged with the air passing the surface of the evaporator by means of a blower and is thus changed into cool air which is discharged to the inside of the vehicle, thereby cooling the interior of the vehicle. On the other hand, the heating system is configured in such a manner where cooling water flows to the heater core and is heat-exchanged with the blowing air, thereby heating the interior of the vehicle.
Generally, the air conditioner for a vehicle has three types.
First, there is a three-piece type of air conditioner where a blower unit, an evaporator unit and a heat unit are separately formed and coupled to one another. In the case of this type, however, the size of system becomes bulky, which makes the space inside the vehicle substantially decreased and also makes the productivity undesirably low.
To ensure the efficient use of the space inside the vehicle, therefore, a compact air conditioner is needed. To meet such the necessity, recently, there is presented a semi-center type of air conditioner where an evaporator unit and a heater unit are integrally formed with each other. Otherwise, there is presented a center-mounting type of air conditioner where the blower unit, the evaporator unit, and the heater unit are formed integrally with one another.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional semi-center type of air conditioner for a vehicle, wherein the blower unit is not shown.
The conventional air conditioner for a vehicle includes: an air conditioner casing 10 having a defrost vent 12, a face vent 14, and a floor vent 16 formed at outlet sides thereof in such a manner as to be adjusted in their opening by means of respective mode doors 12d, 14d, and 16d; a blower (which is not shown) connected to an inlet of the air conditioner casing 10 for blowing inside air or outside air; an evaporator E and a heater core H each disposed at inside air passageways of the air conditioner casing 10; and a temperature adjusting door 20 adapted to adjust a degree of the opening of a cool air passageway P1 and a warm air passageway P2 of the air conditioner casing 10. The floor vent 16 is branched into a front vent 16f discharging air to front seats of the vehicle and a rear vent 16r discharging air to rear seats of the vehicle.
According to the conventional air conditioner for a vehicle under the above construction, if a cooling cycle is activated, the temperature adjusting door 20 is moved to a position shown by a dotted line as shown in FIG. 1 and opens the cool air passageway P1, while closing the warm air passageway P2. Thus, the air that is blown by the blower is passed through the surface of the evaporator E and heat-exchanged to refrigerant flowing the interior of the evaporator E. As a result, the air is changed into cool air and flows toward the cool air passageway P1 in a direction of the dotted line as shown in FIG. 1. Finally, the cool air is discharged through a vent that is opened by a given air discharging mode toward the inside of the vehicle, thereby conducting the cooling with respect to the inside of the vehicle.
On the other hand, if a heating cycle is activated, the temperature adjusting door 20 is moved to a position shown by a solid line as shown in FIG. 1 and closes the cool air passageway P1, while opening the warm air passageway P2. In this case, the activation of the cooling cycle through the evaporator E stops. As a result, the air that is blown by the blower is passed toward the heater core H through the warm air passageway P2 in a direction of the solid line as shown in FIG. 1 and is heat-exchanged into cooling water flowing the interior of the heater core H. Finally, the warm air is discharged through a vent that is opened by a given air discharging mode toward the inside of the vehicle, thereby conducting the heating with respect to the inside of the vehicle.
According to the conventional air conditioner for a vehicle as shown in FIG. 1, by the way, in a case where the cooling cycle is activated to an air discharging mode where the floor vent 16 is opened, hot cooling water flows to the inside of the heater core H, and since the floor vent 16 is disposed at the rear side of the heater core H, the air discharged through the floor vent 16 is heated by the heater core H, which undesirably makes the cooling performance greatly decreased. Furthermore, the temperature adjusting door 20 is turned between the evaporator E and the heater core H, and the evaporator E and the heater core H are disposed vertically, such that the whole size of the air conditioner becomes large.
According to the conventional air conditioner for a vehicle as shown in FIG. 1, moreover, there is provided a left and right partitioning wall (which is not shown) defining the left and right space portions with respect to the inside air passageways of the air conditioner casing 10, and in a case where doors in the left and right space portions are adjusted in their opening, the cooling and heating control with respect to the left and right space portions at the inside of the vehicle can be independently conducted. However, since the front vent 16f and the rear vent 16r communicate with each other, the cooling and heating control with respect to the front and back space portions at the inside of the vehicle can not be independently conducted.
To solve the problems the conventional air conditioner for a vehicle as shown in FIG. 1 has, therefore, there is presented another conventional air conditioner for a vehicle as shown in FIG. 2, which is disclosed in Korean Patent Publication Laid-open No. 2004-31601.
The conventional air conditioner for a vehicle as shown in FIG. 2 includes: an air conditioner casing 100 having a blower (which is not shown) connected to an inlet side thereof and a defrost vent 120, a face vent 122, a front seat floor vent 124, a rear seat floor vent 126 formed at outlet sides thereof in such a manner as to be adjusted in their opening by means of respective mode doors 120d, 122d, 124d and 126d; an evaporator E and a heater core H each disposed at inside air passageways of the air conditioner casing 100; a console side cooling air bypass passageway P3 formed under a warm air passageway P2 for making a cool air passageway P1 communicating with the rear seat console vent 126; first and second cool air adjusting doors 130 and 132 adapted to adjust a degree of the opening of an outlet of the cool air passageway P1 and an inlet of the warm air passageway P2; a third cool air adjusting door 134 adapted to adjust a degree of the opening of the inlet of the warm air passageway P2 and the inlet of the console side cool air bypass passageway P3; a first temperature adjusting door 140 adapted to adjust a degree of the opening of an outlet of the warm air passageway P2 with respect to a mixing chamber MC of the air conditioner casing 100; and a second temperature adjusting door 142 adapted to adjust a degree of the opening of the outlet of the warm air passageway P2 with respect to the rear seat console vent 126.
According to the conventional air conditioner for a vehicle as shown in FIG. 2, in a case where a full cooling mode is set in an air discharging mode where the rear seat console vent 126 is opened, the first and third cool air adjusting doors 130 and 134 are operated to close the inlet of the warm air passageway P2. Also, the outlet of the cool air passageway P1 is opened by means of the first and second cool air adjusting doors 130 and 132.
Thus, the cool air passageway P1 and the rear seat console vent 126 communicate with each other through the console side cool air bypass passageway P3. On the other hand, the first and second warm air adjusting doors 140 and 142 are operated to close the outlet of the warm air passageway P2. Thus, the rear seat console vent 126 does not communicate with the warm air passageway P2. And, other vents 120, 122 and 124 are selectively opened according to the set air discharging mode.
At this state, if air enters the inlet 110 of the air conditioner casing 100 by means of the operation of the ventilator, the air is passed through the evaporator E and is changed into cool air. A part of cool air is passed through the cool air passageway P1 and the mixing chamber MC and through the vent opened according to the air discharging mode and is then discharged to the front seats at the inside of the vehicle. And, the rest of cool air is passed through the console side cool air bypass passageway P3 and the rear seat console vent 126 and is then discharged to the rear seats at the inside of the vehicle.
On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 3, there is provided a left and right partitioning wall 112 defining the left and right space portions with respect to the inside air passageways of the air conditioner casing 100, and in a case where doors in the left and right space portions are adjusted in their opening, the cooling and heating control with respect to the left and right space portions at the inside of the vehicle can be independently conducted. That is, the air conditioning in the four-way zone at the inside of the vehicle can be independently conducted.
According to the conventional air conditioner for a vehicle as shown in FIG. 2, by the way, since the console side cool air bypass passageway P3 just abuts against the lower portion of the heater core H, the cool air supplied from the console side cool air bypass passageway P3 is heated by the heat transmitted from the heater core H, such that compensating effect for making the raising temperature of the air discharged through the rear seat console vent 126 decreased becomes low. Moreover, since the lower end portion of the heater core H is protruded toward the console side cool air bypass passageway P3 to block a part of the passageway P3, the cool air becomes more heated by the heater core H, and also since an amount of air flowing through the console side cool air bypass passageway P3 becomes small, the temperature of air discharged through the rear seat console vent 126 is not adjusted effectively.
According to the conventional air conditioner for a vehicle as shown in FIG. 2, typically, since the air conditioner casing 100 has two divided left and right casings 100a and 100b (see FIG. 3) joined to each other or three divided left, right and lower casings jointed to one another, the warm air that is passed through the heater core H via a left and right joining part 114 of the left and right casings 100a and 100b is leaked toward the console side cool air bypass passageway P3 from the warm air passageway P2, which makes the temperature of the cool air discharging from the console side cool air bypass passageway P3 to the rear seat console vent 126 more raised.
Further, upon the activation of the full cooling mode, even though the outlet of the warm air passageway P2 is closed by the second warm air adjusting door 142 with respect to the rear seat console vent 126, the air is leaked from the warm air passageway P2 toward the rear seat console vent 126 through a gap between the sealing surface of the air conditioner casing 100 and the second warm air adjusting door 142.
Additionally, all of the five doors 130, 132, 134, 140, and 142 are operated for the temperature adjustment, and accordingly, an actuating device like an actuator for actuating each door is needed, which makes the number of parts greatly increased.